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12 Ways to Keep You and Your Family Healthy

Eat breakfast. The evidence linking a hearty breakfast and a healthy weight keeps getting more convincing: Earlier this year, Israeli scientists put 93 overweight or obese women on a 1,400-calorie-a-day diet and told one group to eat half of those calories at breakfast and the other to eat half at dinner. Those who ate the big breakfasts lost 10 pounds more after 12 weeks than those who ate the big dinners; they also had lower levels of fats in their blood and better blood sugar levels, reducing the risk of heart attack and type 2 diabetes. One study suggests that half-carb, half-protein breakfasts are the most effective for weight loss—think scrambled eggs with a slice of whole wheat toast.

Ease stress with sound. And make it the right kind of sound: In one 2013 study, researchers played either classical choral music, sounds of rippling water, or nothing at all for three groups of subjects before making them speak and do arithmetic in front of an audience. Those who listened to the water before performing stayed the calmest, producing the lowest amount of the stress hormone cortisol, which has been associated with type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Don’t live near a stream? Download a free running water app, such as Fluid Free Live Wallpaper or Koi Pond, on your smartphone.

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